The Turkish pharmaceutical market reached $5.6bn in 2017. Despite strong competition from multinationals, Abdi Ibrahim, a local company, was market leader last year with a turnover of $380m. It was followed by Novartis and Pfizer.

Turkey’s public payer body has said it will halt reimbursement of 54 products from 2018 unless manufacturers, including several multinationals, agree to start local production within a year.

The Turkish pharmaceutical market delivered a good performance in 2014, growing by around 9%, although the declining lira meant market expansion remained insignificant in U.S. dollar terms. Alimentary, antineoplastic and immunomodulatory products became best sellers, and as of the end of November 2014, Novartis led the market.

A PharmAsia News update on Turkish biomedical regulatory policies, including industry and government slowly inching toward common ground over adjusting the euro exchange rate used to pay for drug imports.